


Raincoats, Rubber Shoes

by clarademeanor



Category: IT - Stephen King, Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Crack Treated Seriously, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Spinel needs a hug, and Georgie gets a clown friend who DOESN'T murder children, but spinel is there for some reason, especially not anymore, no pennywise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-16 16:29:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21039257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clarademeanor/pseuds/clarademeanor
Summary: There's no sadistic killer clown waiting in the sewer for Georgie Denbrough. Nearby, however, there is someone lost and in need of a good friend.





	Raincoats, Rubber Shoes

**Author's Note:**

> hhhhh
> 
> don't think about how these timelines make no sense together

Georgie’s feet went splish-splash through the puddles that collected by the side of the road. The rainfall was a bit much for the gutters to handle all at once, and everything took a while to drain- perfect for paper and paraffin boats.

He stumbled after his little watercraft, chasing it as it bobbed and swirled with the current. There was a drain ahead. Not wanting to lose the brave vessel, he forced himself to run faster. His raincoat swished with the movement.

His hand went out to grab the boat, missed, then (there!) caught it before it could slip into the inky darkness. Raindrops pittered, beading on the paper’s waxy surface.

He looked around, trying to find a new current on which to set sail, when he caught sight of… something in the corner of his eye. It was only for a moment, and when he turned to look there was nothing. 

At the same time though, he caught a faint noise from behind one of the nearby trees- like the snapping of a rubber band. Was there someone over there? 

_ Someone must be hiding- maybe playing hide and seek? _

He curled his hand tight around his boat, though carefully avoiding crumpling it to a point where it wouldn’t sail properly. 

He trotted over to the tree, noting with appropriately childish delight how the rain lessened under its sprawling limbs. It was one of the larger trees in the neighborhood- though it lacked any low branches for climbing.

He rounded the trunk of the tree, eager to see who was hiding nearby-

Oh. His first thought was wonderment that anyone could be that _ pink_. 

There were other things of note, too- the bizarre tangle of tubelike limbs, the brilliantly shiny stone in the center of it’s chest, the bristled hair that seemed remarkably undisturbed by the rain. 

She was dressed a bit like a clown, though, which made all the other odd details fall into place; clowns were _ supposed _ to be strange and silly looking. 

She must have been a very excellent clown.

She stared up at him from her resting place on the ground, looking startled. Maybe it wasn’t a hide-and-seek game then? If not, what was it?

Georgie was too young to understand the off feeling this creature surely would have given an adult, or even an older child. In shape, bizarrely like a human, and yet so obviously _ not _to anyone with any degree of worldliness. To Georgie, though, she was only a pretty pink lady sitting in the rain.

“Hi,” he waved the hand not holding his boat. 

She blinked at him- slowly, like the motion was unnatural to her. 

“H-heya.” Her voice was quiet, and a little rough; like she had been shouting for a long time and was too tired to be angry anymore. She turned away and tucked her knees under her chin.

Georgie sucked in a breath- she seemed…. unhappy. He had never seen an unhappy clown before.

Maybe…. She needed some cheering up? 

“You’re _ very _ pink.” This was indeed a compliment of the highest order- he hadn’t known it was possible to be any pretty colors like that.

Her eyes narrowed a bit, as if trying to gauge what exactly he meant by that. 

“Yeah, I know…. What’s wrong with me bein’ pink?”

“Nothing! It looks nice.”

Her face turned a slightly darker pink at this; she muttered something unintelligible under her breath and looked away. 

The rain continued to pour- bizarrely, none of it seemed to soak into her clothes. It rolled merrily off her form the way it did Georgie’s raincoat.

“Where’s your circus?”

She tilted her head. “What in the stars is _ that _ supposed to mean?”

“Oh- don’t you have a circus?”

She huffed. “Are you gonna keep askin’ questions like that? Cuz I haven’t got the slightest idea what you’re talkin’ about.”

Hmm. Maybe she had never seen a circus before. That was a shame- Georgie was certain no one could be sad in a place so wonderful.

“...Why are you out in the rain?” There were games to play in the rain, but not by oneself, and certainly not from behind trees.

“I, uh, didn’t know this sort of thing happened on Earth. Didn’t really plan for it, ta be honest.”

She wasn’t looking at him. She hugged herself, arms stretching to wrap herself all the way up the way someone would utilise a blanket. 

That was another odd thing, too- but not something Georgie paid much attention to. He was more preoccupied with figuring out why she was all alone. 

“Are you cold?” 

Her arms unwrapped from her body, assuming a more natural length. She shrugged. 

“Gems don’ really get cold.”

He wasn’t really sure what she meant by that. Maybe it was a joke? If it was, he didn’t get it. There were a lot of other jokes, like the ones Bill told when he thought Georgie couldn’t hear, that he didn’t understand either.

“Hmm… do you have any friends you can visit?”

The clown fiddled with her hands for a moment. “None around here, that’s for sure.”

“Well, maybe you can make some! There’s lots of kids in the neighborhood. Grown ups, too.” 

“I know- I tried already. Came right up to one of the older ones. They just ran inside. Didn’t… didn’t like the looka’ me, I guess.”

The clown’s fingers brushed her cheek, tracing over black lines of what Georgie assumed was face paint. Her eyes were distant, pained.

Georgie reached tentatively out, putting his little hand over her free one.

“That’s okay,” he murmured. “Making friends is really hard.”

Her lower lip trembled. “Ain't that the truth. Gotta try, though. That’s all I can do.” She looked away, seemingly unwilling to meet his eyes. 

He beamed at her. “Well, I think you can! You seem nice to me.” 

This seemed to surprise her a great deal. Her jaw worked for a moment, seemingly at a loss for words.

“...Thank you. You’re a nice….. human.”

A pause. She stared off into space, twisting her neck to watch the rain patter into the street.

“Do… do _ you _ have any friends?”

He nodded. “I have three! But my brother Bill is my bestest.” He sank to the ground next to her, sitting about a foot away. She fidgeted for a moment, but settled down again a moment after.

Georgie paused. 

“We could be friends, too. That way, I’d have four, and you’d have someone who lives here!" 

Her brow furrowed. She scanned his face for a moment, seemingly unsure of whether he was serious. 

“You don’ really mean that,” she muttered. 

“Uh-huh, yes I do!”

He beamed at her, leaning closer to where she sat curled up.

“I’ve never made friends with a stranger before! It’s only been other kids- or Bill. Mmm… my mom might not like it though…. I could get in trouble.” 

His eyes went wide at the prospect of doing something forbidden. On the other hand, though, his parents had only warned him about accepting rides or gifts from strangers. They hadn’t said anything about helping them out in the rain. 

The clown rubbed the side of her face. “Trouble, huh? You’re right, we can’t have that.”

Georgie _ hmmm_ed, trying to think of a way out of his possible punishment. “Oh!” he brightened suddenly. 

He stuck his hand out to her like he had seen his parents do when they talked to other grown ups. He was met by a blank stare. 

“It’s okay,” he whispered to her confidentially, “This is what you’re s’posed to do when you meet new people.”

Cautiously, she reached out to return his gesture; his tiny hand eclipsed in her comically oversized one. He shook her hand once, twice- as close to the way his dad did as he could remember. 

“My name’s Georgie. What’s yours?” That was the line meant for meeting adults, when his parents would encourage him to introduce himself. This time, though, there were no adults telling him to say hello. He felt very grown up in that moment. 

She was quiet for a moment; and he was left to wonder if he had done something wrong. After a few seconds of waiting, though, she offered him a small smile.

“Name’s Spinel. It’s, uh… nice to meet you too.”

Even as their handshake concluded, the smile stayed on Spinel’s face. She even chuckled softly as Georgie folded his hands politely in his lap, unsure of what ritual came after hand shaking. 

“So, eh.. What’s a little charmer like yourself doin’ out here, anyway?”

He remembered his paper craft suddenly, still clutched in his other hand. He held it up to show her, pulling at some of the unwelcome creases to reshape it to its earlier magnificence. 

“I’m sailing my boat! Isn’t she neat? Bill helped me make her.” 

Spinel let out a low whistle. “That’s really somethin’. I know any Emerald would be fallin’ over themselves tryin’ to get their hands on a craft that nice.”

She giggled at her own joke; and Georgie, despite not understanding in the slightest, laughed along. Her eyes widened at his response, filling with an emotion he didn’t have a name for quite yet. Whatever it was, it made her sit up from her curled position. 

“‘Course, a ship’s worth nothin’ at all without a proper captain.”

She reached out with only slight caution to poke his nose for emphasis, eliciting another laugh from him. The sound seemed to spur her further, brightening her eyes with a certain vivacity that hadn’t been there before. 

She stood up for the first time, spindly limbs placing her well above his height. This was changed, though, when she bent double in a sweeping, exaggerated bow.

“And no finer captain there ever was!” 

She bounced on her heels, moving back into a standing position. She seemed to be enjoying herself. It was a massive improvement, considering they had only been talking for the past...

Wait-

What time _was_ it? How long had he been outside? His mom had always, _ always _ told him not to stay out too long- especially in the rain. Something about catching colds, or some other silly adult fear. 

Georgie’s breath came out in a gasp. “Oh, shoot! My mom’s gonna kill me!”

This was the sort of thing Bill said when _ he _ was late getting home. It was one of the details Georgie was eager to copy from his elder brother- the phrases, the big-kid words.

In his panic over possibly getting in trouble, he hurriedly turned to face his house, only to hear a quiet voice from behind him.

“You’re leavin’?”

He turned back to Spinel. Her bright eyes were wide; she wrung her hands tightly together as she watched him, still standing.

“I..I have to. My mom will worry.”

She grumbled anxiously, literally tying her hands into knots as she fiddled with her fingers. Her energy had suddenly left her- she seemed almost to deflate under the knowledge that he had to leave. 

_ Hmmm_. Georgie puffed his cheeks out a bit, thinking. 

“Oh! I have an idea. You can come over to my house, once the weather is nicer.”

He pointed all the way up the street. He hoped she could follow where he was indicating.

“It’s the one with the porch, and the two big windows- you see it?”

She nodded.

“Well, when the rain stops, you can come knock on my door, and we can go and play, okay?”

Spinel stared down at his hopeful smile.

“Okay,” she murmured.

There! Now they could play without worrying his mom! He almost began to walk away, but stopped himself before he had taken more than a step.

“You _ will _come, right?”

She nodded her head emphatically, eyes rolling in their sockets from the exaggerated movement. This affirmation was more than good enough for him.

“All right. Bye Spinel! I’ll see you soon, okay?” 

He waved, waited for her to wave back, then turned and splashed away towards his house. He had so much to tell Bill!

. . . . .

“She’ll be here once the rain stops, Bill. We’re gonna play, and we’re gonna be great friends!” 

Georgie had come back from his boat-sailing; eyes wide with excitement, and telling some fanciful story about meeting a friendly pink clown who had needed cheering up. 

A bit weird, yes, but Bill didn’t give it much thought…. at least not at first.


End file.
